


An Unfamiliar Night

by Catchclaw



Series: Mental Mimosa [122]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, Magic, landing party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 15:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15799137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catchclaw/pseuds/Catchclaw
Summary: Kirk assigns himself to Spock's landing party and things get strange fast.





	An Unfamiliar Night

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Baths and water (tubs or jacuzzis; hot springs; bath houses or steam rooms; the ocean; swimming pools). Prompt from this [generator](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/prompts).

The pool ahead of them glimmered, the moon casting each ripple with an unearthly glow. There was no wind and no sound; the whole planet seemed to be holding its breath.

Well hell, Jim Kirk thought as they came up and over the last rise, that can’t be good.

And then in the next instant, he felt guilty. This place had done nothing to harm them, had been nothing but a quiet, gentle host, and though it had been a long time since the _Enterprise_ had been sent to explore a planet on which sentient life had yet to evolve, there was a certain charm to it, a sense of stepping somehow back in time.

He’d been hanging out with Bones too often lately, he figured; the man’s prehensile sense of dread had rubbed off on him somehow. No, they’d been stuck on the ship for too long--that was the problem. Everybody was edgy lately, brittle, and so it seemed was he.

Not good for the man in the center seat to get cynical, to get tangled inside his own head. It was precisely why he’d assigned himself to this landing party, why he’d cut the green-as-grass geologist Spock had assigned and taken the spot for himself: he needed some fresh air, some damn wide open spaces. He needed to have his boots in the dirt and his body secured, at least for a moment, to the ground.

And here he was, two steps from Spock’s side, the pool stretched before them under a midnight sky, his mind refusing to take the planet’s beauty at face value. Gods, it was awful what a three month cruise with no respite could do--mission after mission, orders upon orders, and at the end of the day, where did that leave him? Standing an arm’s length from one of his best friends in the universe utterly unable to appreciate the loveliness of an unfamiliar night.

“Captain,” Spock said quietly. “Stop walking.”

His feet took the order before his brain did. “What is it?”

Spock shot him a look and shook his head-- _Q_ _uiet_ \--then tipped his chin at the water: _Look_.

At first, Kirk saw only the water, a slight shudder of movement. He assumed it was a wave. Or maybe the interplay of the pool and high, solemn moon. He made himself look again.

And he saw it.

No, not it, but them: a dozen or so of them, more appearing as he watched: tiny bright  creatures with long, butterfly-like wings. The night air sparkled as they moved through it, shook softly with what sure sounded to Kirk like laughter.

He edged closer to Spock, leaned his mouth to the Vulcan’s ear. “I thought there was no sentient life her.”

Spock shook his head once, a short, sharp denial. “There is not.”

“Then what the hell are those?”

He could almost feel Spock sigh. “I believe that those, Captain, are fairies.”

**Author's Note:**

> Super late MM but was determined to put something on paper today. 
> 
> ...and Spock is 100% gonna take off his kit and jump in that pool, ok?


End file.
